“I would love that.”
“I still think you are going to hurt him,” she said. She was smiling this time as she looked over the land below us. I didn’t know how to take her words. “But some things are probably worth hurting for.”
I raised an eyebrow, not certain I should be one of those things for David. He was doing brilliantly, and I didn’t want to disrupt his progress. “I would much rathernothurt him.”
“It is already too late for that. But I’m sorry I threatened you before. You see, if I were to fall from this branch right now—”
I grabbed her arm. “Please don’t. David would be extremely disappointed in me if I allowed that.”
“But if itwereto happen—”
I tightened my hold. “It won’t.”
She narrowed one eye at me as if she simply wanted to finish her sentence. “The point is, I wouldn’t be sad for the climb, even if I fell. Even if I were in pain for days afterward.”
NowthatI understood. I’d climbed and fell from enough trees to agree with her. And if it meant a few days of pain for David after I left, well, that was part of the human experience, wasn’t it? I would miss him and Julia when we had to part ways as well.
I released her arm, gave her a salute, and grinned. “Here’s to the climb, then.”
The breeze kicked up again, making Julia’s curls dance. I spread my arms wide once more and let a whoop of joy leave my lips.
Miss Tate’s eyes flew open, and I hollered a second time. Our eyes met, and on my third cry, she joined me. Her voice was lovely, even lifted in a strange warbling exclamation of freedom. In a fit of defiance, I unbuttoned my coat and let it fall to the ground. Mama would be furious if I became ill, but I needed to be unshackled by the past six years, and dropping Mr. Green’s coat seemed fitting.
Julia stopped her whooping and looked at me in puzzlement. Then, with a shrug, she unbuttoned her own coat.
“No.” I leaned forward to stop her. David wouldn’t appreciate my terrible influence on his sister, and even though he’d said she was healthy, her pallor begged to differ.
But she shook her head and pulled away from me. After only a moment, her coat was at the base of the tree, the skin on her arms riddled with gooseflesh.
“Your brother is going to flay me alive,” I said.
“He would never,” Julia quipped, lifting her bare arms into the wind. Just before I joined her, my eye caught hold of a small, circular red mark, only partially visible under her short sleeve as it lifted. It wasn’t raised like a rash, thank goodness. I would have felt terrible if she was sick and I was making her climb this tree. It must be abirthmark, so high on her underarm it was most likely never visible. Not until some wild woman had her raising her arms up in a tree, at any rate.
Julia shouted again, and I pulled my eyes away from her arm, shook my head with a laugh, and joined her.
Only after we’d laughed and howled and finished expressing our freedom did I dare look out at David again.
He was turned this way. Of course he was. We hadn’t exactly been quiet. He was too far away for me to catch the expression on his face, but his head was lifted, and I think, perhaps, he was looking at me as if I’d done something good.
m
My arm was once again wrapped around David’s as we made our way back to the cottage. It had been less than an hour since we’d first walked arm in arm, yet I was much more comfortable with him already.
Getting to know his sister would be a pleasure. It had been too long since I’d had a friend close to my age. Just knowing I was on the path to accomplishing the one task he’d asked of me made my spine relax and put a spring in my step that hadn’t been there when we’d left that morning.
David seemed more at ease as well. There was a nearly permanent crinkle to his eyes. We walked at a leisurely pace, in no hurry to return to the cottage. Soon, we fell behind Mama and Julia, pausing every once in a while to point out birds in the bushes or a rock that caught David’s eye. He’d done that as a boy as well, always noticed the small things in life.
He bent over to pick up a white stone with a dark slash of black running through it and handed it to me. I held it tightly in my fist, secretly grateful that he gave me something besides the flowers. Thoselilies would wither and die, but this stone I’d be able to keep long after Mama and I left Breckenridge.
His lips shifted to one side, and he nudged my shoulder with his own as if we were children. Having friends like him and Julia was something I could get used to.
Even if I shouldn’t.
He nudged me again, this time softer. “I’m glad you’re here, Anna Atwood. Now I don’t have to spend another year wondering where you are and if you’re well. And thanks to our engagement, I have an excuse to see you every day for the short time you’re in Breckenridge.”
I pressed my shoulder against his. “I’m glad too.” Even if my decision to come to Breckenridge had started out as a terrible one. David had given me a chance to regroup and make better plans. “I think your sister and I will become good friends.”
He chuckled. “I can’t remember the last time I saw her so unfettered. Thank you.” He kicked another stone, and it skidded along the path in front of us. “Some of Father’s tenants still ask about you, especially the Mortensens. I’ll finally be able to give them an update. You are going to make most of Breckenridge very happy just by being here. There will be a revolt when you leave.”
